““Who does the Lord think we are?” they ask. “Why does he speak to us like this? Are we little children, just recently weaned? He tells us everything over and over— one line at a time, one line at a time, a little here, and a little there!” So now God will have to speak to his people through foreign oppressors who speak a strange language! God has told his people, “Here is a place of rest; let the weary rest here. This is a place of quiet rest.” But they would not listen.”
Isaiah 28:9-12 NLT
The drunken Israelites did not receive Isaiah’s correction well at all. Their lifestyles had no place for God, and they responded badly, mocking Isaiah’s message like children ridiculing their peers. We can almost hear the rhyming mimicry as it fell from their drunken lips. Such childishness from so-called religious leaders beggars belief. They don’t take Isaiah’s godly message seriously. After all, they thought, why would they want to be lectured by someone still committed to proclaiming God’s message? But as they will find out, the Lord will throw these words back into their faces.
Have we ever tried to communicate Scripture with someone who perhaps knows a little about the Bible but who responds to our comments with ridicule? I had such a conversation recently with a man whose knowledge of the Bible was actually quite impressive, but he has rejected just about everything it says. His scorn of God’s Word started in Genesis 1, but he quickly became bored with the conversation and couldn’t get away quickly enough. The problem was that he had developed a worldview not aligned with God’s view, and in his current thinking, he rejected anything that conflicted with his own thoughts. This left him in a fragile state, without any foundational truth to base his life on, and it will one day crash down like a house of cards before the gaze of the One sitting in judgment. He didn’t lapse into mockery, but I have met some people who do.
There is a question for the religious leaders in Samaria that would be interesting to hear answered. Perhaps it could be phrased something like, “How did you get to a state where you rejected God and everything to do with Him, even though you had the Scriptures to refer to?” This question is even more significant for anyone who has lived since Jesus came into this world. But answers will, I fear, be few in number because before Jesus there is no answer. Just a growing awareness that they have got things so wrong. I suspect there will be efforts to cast the blame on someone else, including the age-old response, “The devil made me do it”, or they would blame their parents, or their environment. In Hebrews 10:26-27 we read, “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God”. My friend knows the truth, but rather than letting it set him free, he has responded with a stubborn rejection of anything to do with God.
The Israelites had reached a stage where they blocked their ears to God’s messages. Perhaps they had become like the children in their response to Isaiah, holding their hands over their ears and shouting out silly noises to stop the message reaching their souls. There was such a time earlier in Israel’s history that we can read about in 1 Samuel 3:1, “Meanwhile, the boy Samuel served the Lord by assisting Eli. Now in those days messages from the Lord were very rare, and visions were quite uncommon”. Had God stopped speaking? Not at all, but the people had become deaf to His voice and had stopped listening.
Isaiah 28:11 declares another way God will speak to His people. If they had become deaf to His voice, then perhaps they would listen to another in a language of judgment, with punishment administered by “foreign oppressors”. These were the Assyrians who spoke a language that was foreign to the Israelites, and what was to happen was recorded in 2 Kings 17:5-6, “Then the king of Assyria invaded the entire land, and for three years he besieged the city of Samaria. Finally, in the ninth year of King Hoshea’s reign, Samaria fell, and the people of Israel were exiled to Assyria. They were settled in colonies in Halah, along the banks of the Habor River in Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes“. Did the Israelites then hear God’s “voice” as they reflected on their lives in exile? Some did, and we read about them in other accounts in Ezra and Nehemiah. But many didn’t, and those who escaped the Assyrian swords and became exiled were absorbed into the communities in which they found themselves. God’s purposes will always be fulfilled, and He purified His people.
We pilgrims ignore the Word of God at our peril. We know the words that Paul wrote to Timothy, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realise what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Unlike my friend who has rejected God’s Word, we embrace it and we are like the Psalmist who wrote, “Joyful are people of integrity, who follow the instructions of the Lord” (Psalm 119:1). In this Psalm we can also read, “Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your instructions“. Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except through Me”. And so we pilgrims pursue the Word of Truth, Jesus Himself, without ceasing. Day by day we read what God is saying to us. And we pray without ceasing, because that is what He expects of His children. Yes, there will be times when we err from the Path of Life, taking time out and resting away from God. But He is gracious and kind. 1 John 1:9, “But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness”. There is always a way back to God’s loving arms.
Dear Heavenly Father. When we are weary on our journey to Glory, we can rest awhile, soaking up sustenance from Your Word and Your Spirit. You have provided us with all that we need for life, and today we ask again for a refilling of Your Spirit to help our beacons of light to keep shining for all to see. We love You, Lord, and will continue to love You even until our days end in this world. There is no other place we would rather be than in Your loving arms with You in Heaven. Amen.
